Figuring out how you can engage with more website visitors — and book more sales meetings — without having to hire a small army of new employees to manage all of the conversations.

Scott and Kevin know what we’re talking about.

Scott is the founder of TrainedUp (an online platform for training church volunteers), and Kevin is TrainedUp’s director of marketing.

Between the two of them, they manage all of TrainedUp’s marketing and sales efforts — from driving engagement, to qualifying leads, to scheduling (and giving) product demos.

It might sound like an impossible task — a two-person team managing the entire sales funnel — but with Drift, they haven’t just been able to “get by,” they’ve been growing the business.

They’re booking more demos than ever and are simultaneously shortening their sales cycle.

But don’t just take my word for it: Scott and Kevin have been tweeting about their time using Drift for the past several months (and we’ve dug up some gems that we’ll be sharing throughout this case study).

For those of you in a hurry, here’s the tl;dr version of how TrainedUp uses Drift to supercharge their sales funnel.

We’ve been using their latest feature called Playbooks since they announced it and there is no way I would go back. It allows me to set up a simple chatbot that asks website visitors a series of questions to see whether or not they are qualified for a live demo and then automatically schedules the demo for me without the lead ever leaving our website. – Kevin, TrainedUp Director of Marketing

40% of leads that get demos convert into customers — and those leads convert within a month of their demo.

With 25% of people who visit our website engaging with our chatbot and 3.5% converting to demos, I’d call that a huge success… With those numbers, it’s easy to see why Drift has been such a valuable tool for us. – Kevin, TrainedUp Director of Marketing

The form-free approach: TrainedUp booked 80 pre-qualified demos in a single month (July 2017) using Drift.

The Backstory

When Kevin joined TrainedUp, he was already familiar with Drift…but he really only thought of us as a live chat tool.

He had signed up a while back to use Drift for a side project, but he never really explored what it could do. As he explained in a recent blog post:

“The interface and ease of installation made me fall in love. But, my experience stopped at live chat.”

When Kevin discovered Drift for the second time, however, this time for engaging website visitors on TrainedUp’s website, he soon realized it wasn’t just a live chat tool:

How TrainedUp Books DemosWithout Using Forms

With Drift, intelligent chatbots take care of the tedious tasks like routing and scheduling, which means companies like TrainedUp can “magically” fill up their calendars and never have to worry about missing a chance to engage with interested prospects.

Drift’s chatbots capture and qualify leads around the clock, booking demos for your team 24/7, 365.

At TrainedUp, they call their Drift-powered chatbot the “TrainedUp Helper,” and they’ve set it up so it asks the same qualifying questions Kevin or Scott would ask.

To quote Kevin: “It’s amazing to watch the chatbot work its magic.”

And while setting up a chatbot on your website and configuring it to qualify leads might sound complicated, our Playbooks make it simple.

OK, so technically it was a “Get a Demo” form that they replaced, but it’s the same concept:

Instead of making prospects fill out a form when they’re ready to take that next step, TrainedUp has linked their “Get a Demo” call-to-action on their website to a Drift Playbook.

That way, as soon as someone clicks “Get a Demo,” their TrainedUp Helper pops up and snaps into action, asking qualifying questions and (if they’re a good fit) helping them pick a time on Kevin’s calendar.

The live demo scheduler is fully automated and the lead never has to leave the website. They put in their email address and the chatbot shows them available time slots based on our Google Calendar availability. If you’re managing a larger team, you can also have the bot automatically round robin the leads or assign meetings based on geographic location.

Director of Marketing, TrainedUp

Here’s a quick recap of the results TrainedUp was able to achieve with Drift:

40% of leads that get demos convert into customers — and those leads convert within a month of their demo.

Kevin from TrainedUp recently shared some stats around how Drift has been performing over the past few months. More specifically, he honed in on the Drift Playbook that he has running on the TrainedUp homepage.

Here’s the breakdown he gave:

Our main chatbot targets new visitors to our homepage. Currently, 25% of those visitors are engaging with the chatbot. Of those that engage, 15% go on to schedule a demo translating to an overall conversion rate of about 3.5% … With 25% of people who visit our website engaging with our chatbot and 3.5% converting to demos, I’d call that a huge success.

Kevin went on to explain that of those Drift leads (a.k.a. conversation-qualified leads, or CQLs) that end up seeing demos, 40% become customers.

For those that are curious we’re currently converting 40% of attended demos to paying customers within a month of their demo. Of the remaining prospects, only about 10% are hard no’s and the rest are still being marketed to.

Did you check out that part about “within a month of their demo”?

That’s one of the best parts:

Because Drift helps you deliver a seamless, painless buying experience that’s powered by real-time conversations (not forms), potential customers are able to get their questions answered more quickly, and that means they can convert more quickly.

By adding Drift to your site, it’s like you’re setting up a fastlane for your best leads.

Final Thought

With Drift, TrainedUp has been able to supercharge their sales funnel. It’s not that they’re simply booking more demos, they’re making the entire buying process more efficient, and shortening their sales cycle.

And in case you’re still on the fence about whether or not taking your marketing and sales process to the next level with Drift is worth it, I leave you with one last tweet from Scott:

Seriously, @drift is like magic for scheduling demos with site visitors. Amazing! Worth every penny.